No, it isn’t a typo. The ‘secret’ of a successful relocation to any country in the world lies in careful planning and preparation. Some ‘secret’, huh? But if it is so obvious, why don’t more people do it? Maybe because human nature does strange things when outside of its comfort zone.
In the case of the Dominican Republic which is a tourist destination, the idea of actually moving to become a resident probably occurs during a vacation. This is unfortunate since life as a tourist and life as a resident are two entirely different things and should never be confused. Furthermore, the amount of research carried out prior to a vacation is likely to be minimal. After all, if it turns out to be a disaster you can comfort yourself that it was but two weeks out of your life and cost a couple of thousand dollars at most. Notch it up to experience and look elsewhere next year.
Moving to live in the DR takes a different kind of preparation and a good place to start is reading. Instead of diving into the internet for real estate, try consulting a few books on the history, politics, culture and customs of the country. The Dominican Republic A National History by Frank Moya Pons published by Hispaniola Books gave me some ‘light bulb’ moments and provides historical insights as to how and why things are the way they are today. Reading this book a second and third time after exploratory visits to the DR may have left you scratching your head somewhat, is also beneficial. Those who are really keen could extend their reading to works about other parts of Latin America; the DR in many respects has more in common with other Spanish speaking Latin American countries than it does with the nearer English speaking Caribbean islands.
There is, however, only so much research which can be done in absentia. Literature and websites such as Offshore Wave are a starting point and whilst not providing the reader with all the answers, should enable a higher quality of questions. A number of visits to the DR will be necessary in order to make an informed choice. Such visits are not ‘vacations’ but information gathering exercises and how that can be achieved without carrying a notebook and writing down what you find out, I will never know……………!
If your first visit to the Dominican Republic was to an all inclusive resort, the second should be renting an apartment for a few weeks. This will give a closer approximation of what it is like to actually reside here. And the third and fourth visits should be renting an apartment away from the tourist areas for a more realistic experience. The DR is a large island; apart from sun, sand and sea we have mountains, valleys, waterfalls and refreshingly cool higher ground which even gets frost. The locals call it snow! So the potential new resident should travel around and see which part suits him or her best.
The first thing which will strike you is the need to learn some Spanish. Note ‘some’ Spanish – you do not need to be fluent nor do you need to be grammatically correct but the attempt to speak in the language of the country will garner respect from the locals. This, by the way, is Latin American Spanish, not, for Europeans, Spanish as spoken in Spain. It is the same language of course but with different pronunciation, easier in fact for native English speakers. Fewer lisping sounds to trip you up. Fourteen years ago I arrived with about 20 words and the inability to string those into a coherent sentence. I have yet to have a lesson; I learned by listening, asking, watching subtitled films on TV and reading the Dominican newspapers with my right hand glued to a very large dictionary. As a result, speaking and reading Spanish is for me no problem but you should see my lame attempts at writing it! But, I do more than ‘get by’; Dominicans are very polite, they will never correct you and they will struggle really hard to understand you. If you have the confidence to give it a shot you will be amply rewarded.
In the all inclusive resorts vacationers will never need to speak Spanish since hotel staff will have English (and French and German and in some cases Italian, Portuguese and maybe other languages as well). Dominicans are very gifted when it comes to picking up other languages. Outside of resorts but in towns and villages frequented by tourists, some English will be spoken. Away from these areas, practically none.
The downside of not having any Spanish at all is that you will naturally gravitate to English speaking residents some of whom may not offer unbiased advice which is in your best interests. It is, of course, a good idea to seek out experienced expats who caught the wave years before you and have many insights (and opinions!) to offer. The difficulty for the potential resident is knowing who to trust when all sound equally convincing. It is, therefore, crucial to check out everything you are told……..several times. You could start with checking out the veracity of this article. Internet message boards are another information gathering medium, but again, hidden agendas can come into play and these are even harder to determine when the providers are anonymous. Some keyboard jockeys may be operating (sometimes under several different names!) more from a need to shore up their own fragile egos than a desire to provide you with helpful information. Or, they may view you as a potential source of revenue.
At the risk of making this sound like a National Enquirer exposé let me give a brief example of a ‘cottage industry’ we have in certain tourist parts of the DR. The economy of the DR which took a nosedive under the previous administration means that it is currently very difficult for foreigners (and Dominicans!) to find work here. It is easy to find voluntary work but not paid work. So if the expats you encounter have not got independent sources of income, the potential resident has to ask themselves ‘how are these people surviving?’ And the answer, frequently, is ‘off of you’.
The cottage industry MTN (milk the newbie!) Inc. can manifest itself in a number of different ways: there is the gringa who befriends tourists and tells them how wonderful it is to live in the DR and she just happens to know of a house which is being sold for a ‘snip’. The sellers are also expats, we all speak the same language, we’re all from good old UK, or US or wherever, let’s meet for a drink. The sellers, too, will expound on the advantages of living in the DR – after all they want to get shot of their house because they chose to build in an area notorious for robberies (having been advised not to!). So the rum flows (it is very inexpensive here and is also a sound judgment preventative), both sellers and befriender are ‘obviously’ thoroughly enjoying their DR lives, the price of the property is a steal compared with what the tourist is used to ‘back home’ and……………..the decision is made and the deal done. This actually happened. It took all of 20 minutes.
And, surprise, surprise, those ill prepared tourists viewing the notion of offshore living through rose tinted spectacles and the bottom of a rum glass are now having all manner of difficulties in adjusting to their new country. But never mind, ‘befriender’ will nip back into the all inclusive resorts and come up with another family who will be persuaded to buy this house off the ill prepared tourists……..after all, it is worth her while. She got US$10,000 for the last introduction. If an expat in the DR tells you they have a business in real estate, check out what that really means. There is no requirement here to hold a license as a broker. Or as a pimp.
I appreciate that it is really difficult for would-be residents to distinguish between decent expats and those who are predators but there are a few pointers I can offer. The decent expats will be people busy running normal lives, whether that is working, running a business, doing voluntary work, or retirees devoting themselves to spare time interests be that painting, gardening, sports, writing, etc. You will probably have to work quite hard to get them to give you a spare hour or so of their time and your meeting may well be curtailed because they have a business meeting, or need to collect the children from school – all the normal facets of everyday life anywhere. The predators, on the other hand, will find YOU. And many of them ‘base’ themselves in locations where tourists will happen by, like gringo bars.
Another way to tell if you are getting responsible advice from a decent expat is to look at how the Dominican population responds to this person. Do they have Dominican friends? Are they respected by Dominicans? Just as Dominicans are gifted at tuning in to different languages, they are also gifted at sorting out the wheat from the chaff amongst the foreign population in their midst. ‘Befriender,’ for example, must have upset a few Dominicans in the course of her 4 years here – her car got trashed in front of a group of Dominican onlookers and no-one lifted a finger to intervene or ‘saw anything’. This is atypical behavior in a country where the indigenous population will normally intervene on your behalf and protect you against the bad apples in their own cart.
Speaking of bad apples there are, of course, a small number of the indigenous population who may set out to scam the unwary. However, my experience is that potential offshore residents have a built in waryometer when it comes to ‘foreigners’ (read Dominicans) which does not seem to operate in the case of fellow expats. So the chances are far higher of being scammed by a bad gringo than a bad Dominican. There is some mysterious process which makes foreigners think they can trust ‘their own kind’ in a foreign land, a type of racism in a sense or a reaction to feeling powerless if you don’t understand what is going on around you – a regression to dependency like that which can happen when you get admitted as an inpatient to hospital. But you wouldn’t give scam artists the time of day in your own country where you know the ropes, so why do it here where you are far more vulnerable?
So, having made the acquaintance of, we hope, decent expats, having researched as much as you can, having got some basic Spanish, having made 3 or 4 visits, what next? Come for an extended stay, rent - don’t buy - a property and test yourself out living here, knowing you have not burned your bridges and can always return whence you came……….or start the process of looking for a country more suitable for you. If the DR turns out not to be the right place for you (and it isn’t for everyone) then you can simply leave without complications. No property to sell……….with or without the assistance of ‘befriender’!!
This would be the time to begin the process for obtaining residency should you decide you do want to relocate to the DR. On your previous trips you would have had a tourist visa which lasts 15 days. Staying a month instead of 2 weeks is no big deal, since you simply pay the excess fee for the period your visa lapsed, when you leave. There is a sliding scale of charges depending on the length of the lapse – up to 3 months will cost 300 pesos (US$10 approx). Over 5 years will cost 15,000 pesos (US$500 approx). These fees can be seen on the Migracion Department website – click on number 4 and read the table in pink. Print it out and carry with you when leaving since what is on the website and what you can be asked for at the airport may be 2 different things! But rest assured that if your tourist visa expired 2 weeks ago no Migracion Stasi will be hunting you out like a fugitive.
The residency process once begun will give you the right to import a container full of personal effects tax free. In fact it is possible to buy everything you will need in the way of furniture, vehicles etc here in the DR so the bringing of a container is not necessary. My advice would be don’t. Potentially you are setting yourself up for a lot of hassle. Customs tends to operate as a law unto itself and once your container has arrived, if you think you are being overcharged on various ‘fees’ and ‘taxes’ there is little you can do about it. Strategically placed ‘presents’ at the top of boxes within the container will certainly help during the search process, but if you don’t agree a settlement for payment and you turn and walk away, you will legitimately be charged ‘demurrage’ or storage for your container. If you ship it out back to whence it came, you will have shipping charges. So, basically, you are in a relatively powerless situation. For every ‘good’ container outcome, I have heard a lot more horror stories – certainly it can be a baptism of fire if you are not used to Dominican bureaucracy.
At the moment (November 2006) the DR is still awaiting the implementation of the DR-CAFTA agreement. This had been due to come into effect here last July but the Government was in no great hurry to push this along since they were receiving ‘double bubble’ taxation via the Fiscal Reform Act. DR-CAFTA could reduce the price of certain items in the DR due to the removal of import taxes, or it may not. As with anything here, speculation is pointless until we actually see how this takes effect. If prices of large consumer items are reduced then a container full of household belongings will be even less necessary. We arrived 14 years ago with 2 suitcases each and a puppy in a dog box. However, there will always be people who want to bring a container, so for those who do, find out which ports are more ‘consumer friendly’. Puerto Plata on the north coast has far less of a ‘mafia’ operating in it than Haina in the south, for example, particularly now that 40 corrupt Customs officials have been fired, including the Chief whose name was not Ali Baba! Do your homework, consult the lawyer with the good reputation who is handling your residencia and pray that the ship actually docks at the port specified and not at a different one. Yes it happens! And if it does, it will be something you have little control over.
It is possible to apply for residencia from scratch yourself, but only if you speak Spanish, understand Dominican bureaucracy and don’t get phased by it and are prepared for the ‘gringo runaround’. If any of those 4 conditions are missing then the services of a reputable lawyer will be essential. I have covered finding reputable lawyers in a separate article (Building a Home in the Dominican Republic). The first step is obtaining provisional residency which takes about 2 months and is valid for a year. This incorporates a range of documents like your birth certificate (original and copies), passport, photos and various letters and forms as well as medical examinations which are carried out in the capital of the DR, Santo Domingo. At the same time but from a different office new residents obtain their cedula or ID card – this is what you will use for identification purposes in relation to banking, legal contracts and the like and is likely to be used far more frequently than the residency card and thus should be photocopied. After a year one can apply for ‘permanent’ residency. How permanent is permanent? Well, it lasts 2 years and every 2 years you return to Santo Domingo to renew it. At the stage of renewing your first permanent residency a lawyer should not be necessary – after 3 years here you will have enough know how and Spanish to do it yourself. Some foreign residents who are perhaps lacking in confidence prefer to use a lawyer for renewals. The cedula lasts for six years before needing renewal; it contains the electronic fingerprints of the bearer. The first cedulas I had in DR were ink fingerprints but this has changed. It is also possible to obtain citizenship which brings the right to vote and to apply for a Dominican passport. However, residency is a prerequisite for citizenship.
The DR is a wonderful country to live in if you have street smarts, simpatico and an income. Lacking any of these may make it an insuperable challenge. This may not be what potential relocators want to hear but it is what they ought to hear. If you have any doubts as to what it is like to live here without an income ask the 40% of Dominicans who live below the poverty line. Fourteen years ago when we first moved, employment was easier to come by – we lived and survived on Dominican salaries. It was probably the hardest, most humbling and single most life changing experience I have ever had (and I’ve had a few!) and left me with the profoundest of respect for the survivability of Dominicans. It also taught me that the best way to learn here is to experience life the way Dominicans do. Unfortunately, that is no longer really possible in that way; without money you either won’t survive or you will become a predator gringo (as above). But your money goes further here than in many other countries, in my opinion, and the benefits of what you will gain from living in the DR cannot be quantified in monetary terms. So if you want to tap into the warmer, nicer, more empathic you…………..welcome to my world!
And in case you were wondering………the title of this piece is not obscene, according to World Wide Words. It is a term used frequently but not always in the best of circumstances by London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone.
Ginnie Bedggood Bedggood_bush@hotmail.com
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